The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7 119 of Japanese Patent Application No. HEI 10-337344, filed on Nov. 27, 1998, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assembly work support system that provides instructions from the system to the worker regarding work procedures, work contents, and particular instruction points, and receives information from the worker. The work support system may be employed in a process for assembling wire harnesses.
2. Description of Relevant Materials
Conventionally, in some types of assembly line (e.g., in assembling wire harnesses), several assembly diagram boards are conveyed on a conveyor apparatus at a certain speed. As the assembly diagram boards are conveyed to the work stations of individual workers, each worker undertakes a designated set of tasks.
For example, the conveyor assembly line may be employed in the case of a wire harness, which is constituted by bundling a plurality of electric wires. From different locations along the bundle, one or more wires diverge from a xe2x80x9cmainxe2x80x9d bundle, and connectors are fixed to both ends of the main bundle and to the ends of the diverging wires as well. Further, clamps, grommets, corrugated tubes, identification tape, and the like are fitted at predetermined positions. In the conveyer assembly line as noted above, in the case of a wire harness, the arrangement of wires to the assembly diagram board, insertion of terminals into connectors, winding tape on arranged wires, or clamping of the clamp parts onto the arranged wires is undertaken at the different work stations.
An explanation of the step(s) or instruction(s) to be performed at a work station, whether concrete work procedures, work contents, or instruction points, is usually provided in the form of written documents including diagrams or text that are intended to facilitate a worker""s understanding of the work to be performed. However, with written documents, it is necessary that the workers simultaneously perform their own work while reviewing the documents including the drawings or text, which is difficult and time-consuming.
In addition, workers that are new to a particular assembly routine need to be trained before being permitted to take their place in the line. However, with written training instructions, the worker does not obtain the same familiarity with different parts and procedures as would be obtained by practicing the actual assembly. Moreover, if the assembly routine learned by the worker is erroneous (for any reason), both parts and time will be wasted if the worker takes his or her place on the line and then performs an erroneous assembly routine, perhaps repeatedly.
If an actual production line and actual parts are necessary for training and practice, workers in the locale in which a facility is to be built, or in an existing facility to which a new production line or routine is to be started, cannot be trained before their exposure to the actual line. In such a case, resources are wasted in training on a line that could be in production, and errors that occur even after the actual line becomes available for full production.
Still further, it is an accepted fact that instructions and training will often tend to generate mistakes when new or different instructions and training are employed, for example, by virtue of the differences between the training designer""s perceptions and the perception of various individual workers. It is also accepted that individual workers have differing xe2x80x9cqualityxe2x80x9d in the form of, e.g., efficiency or skill, and that unanticipated bottlenecks and flow disparities will occur in any work flow design. However, it is difficult to keep track of these factors without imposing a significant monitoring burden in time and effort expended, both on the overall process and on the workers themselves.
Provisions for training and for work support are generally distinct from one another. When a change is made to, for example, training provisions (e.g., by changing content or appearance of documents), there is a constant risk that the change will not be propagated to the work support provisions, and vice versa. Monitoring two-way compliance is a significant burden on any such system. Moreover, facility and support costs are high in view of redundancies and duplication between the discrete and distinct provisions.
Additionally, training and work support provisions in the form of written documents need to be wholly localized to every national language in which the assembly workers must learn and work. Essentially identical assembly routines (along with their necessary facilities) are moved to or initiated in different countries, all of the written documents for training and work support must be localized, which is expensive and increases the risk of mistakes and inconsistencies between different facilities.
Although there is known an inspection support system for a wire harness, for conveying inspection instructions by synthesized voice to the worker by a speaker (Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication HEI 8-271570), assembly instructions and inspection instructions have different requirements, and a synthesized voice alone is not usually sufficient to provide complicated assembly instructions to a worker.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a work support system with which improvement of work efficiency can be expected by adopting a visual system for assembly work support. That is, to cope with the above shortcomings in the conventional support systems, the invention envisions a system to relate instructions of the work content to be carried out by moving pictures or still pictures on a monitor, instead of written documents as conventionally practiced.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, an assembly work support system includes memory storage from which instruction data for processing an assembly is readable. A converter, in response to a work start signal, reads the instruction data and converts the instruction data into an output signal that includes one or both of a voice signal, an image signal. A terminal receives the output signal and outputs corresponding assembly messages to an operator, and the system includes an operator input device adapted to receive interactive input data from the operator. A controller receives the interactive input data from the operator input device and interprets the interactive input data.
If a system employing moving or still pictures is adopted, a system for training and simulated practice of assembly work allows the worker to respond to the instructions through feedback, e.g., manipulation of a mouse before exposure to a production linexe2x80x94that is, before the worker is permitted to join the line, or even before the production line actually exists at the worker""s locale. According to this assembly training and simulated practice system, even without the actual parts to be assembled or diagram boards for assembly, it becomes possible to train a worker to a high degree of proficiency.
When such an assembly practice system is used in combination with feedback or work confirmation provided in the actual assembly line (e.g., by means of a sensor, or in which the worker can convey information to the system by operation or voice), the work support system then becomes easy to understand, very strongly relates the training and simulated practice to actual work, and permits the confirmation of work progress and the prevention of erroneous fitting of parts is realized.
Still further, in this manner, employing actual or schematic representations of all of the parts and routines in an assembly process removes any necessity for workers to read text, and the system can be made into a standard form which may be employed anywhere in the world. Any need to localize textual instructions to suit different national languages, e.g., in plants in foreign nations, can be eliminated.
The operator input device may include a microphone for receiving spoken commands as interactive input data, in which case the controller includes a voice recognition system for converting each spoken command into a command that controls output of the assembly messages. Further, the operator input device may include a wireless transmitter worn by an operator for transmitting the spoken commands as interactive input data. Alternatively, the operator input device may include a depressible button, such as a mouse button for receiving each manual actuation or operation as interactive input data.
The instruction data may include step by step work sequence instructions for processing an article. In this case, the memory storage may include a plurality of memories. The memories separately store work content items cross-referenced to articles, one or more instruction for each work content item, and auxiliary data corresponding to the instructions. Each instruction may include one or more of visual layouts of symbolic information and audio voice signal information. The auxiliary data optionally includes a photograph of a part; motion video of an operator performing an instruction; and/or a schematic image of an assembly diagram board.
The terminal may include a voice synthesizing apparatus, in which case the convertor converts the instructions into synthesized voice audio signals as assembly messages.
The convertor may read the instructions from the memory storage in a predetermined sequence at a predetermined rate, and may change one or more of the sequence or the rate depending on the interpreted interactive input data.
In another aspect of the present invention, an assembly work support system controller connectible to an output terminal includes memory storage from which instruction data for processing an assembly is readable. A converter that, in response to a work start signal, reads the instruction data and converts the instruction data into an output signal that includes one or more of a voice signal and an image signal. A network transmission apparatus transmits the output signals to the terminal and that receives interactive input data from the terminal. The terminal receives the output signal and outputs corresponding assembly messages to an operator. The system includes an operator input device adapted to receive interactive input data from the operator. A controller receives the interactive input data and interprets the interactive input data.
In this aspect, the convertor reads the instruction data in a predetermined sequence at a predetermined rate, and the controller changes one or both of the predetermined sequence and said predetermined rate depending on the interactive input data.
In a further aspect of the invention, an assembly work support system includes memory storage from which instruction data for processing a wire harness is readable. A converter reads the instruction data and converts the instruction data into an output signal that includes one or more of a voice signal and an image signal. A terminal receives the output signal and outputs corresponding assembly messages to an operator, and an operator input device receives interactive input data from the operator. A controller receives the interactive input data from the operator input device and interprets the interactive input data to control the output of the assembly messages according to the interactive input data.
Accordingly, the inventor contemplates that the assembly work support system may include both of a training and simulation mode and a work-support mode, each alone or in combination, in which the operator may control the voice or display output by interactive input.
In still another aspect of the invention, a wire harness assembly work support system includes memory storage from which instruction data for processing a wire harness is readable. A converter reads the instruction data and converts the instruction data into an output signal that includes one or more of a voice signal and an image signal. A terminal receives the output signal and outputs corresponding assembly messages to an operator, and an operator input device receives interactive input data from the operator. A controller receives the interactive input data from the operator input device and interprets the interactive input data, and a database stores the interpreted interactive data.
In this case, the controller may interpret the interactive input data and record, in the database, operator efficiency and performance by comparing at least operator step completion times to a threshold step completion time. Alternatively or in addition, the controller may interpret the interactive input data and record, in the database, instruction quality by comparing at least a number of repetitions of requested instruction data to a threshold number of repetitions of requested instruction data. Further alternatively or in addition, the controller may interpret the interactive input data and record, in the database, work flow quality by comparing at least waiting times and instruction completion times to threshold waiting times and instruction completion times.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a wire harness assembly work support method includes storing instruction data for processing a wire harness, and reading the instruction data. The instruction data is converted into an output signal that includes one or more of a voice signal and an image signal. The output signals are received and corresponding assembly messages are output to an operator. Interactive input data is received from an operator. The interactive input data are evaluated for predetermined characteristics. Feedback is provided to the operator via a second output signal that includes one or more of a sound signal and an image signal.
According to still yet another aspect of the present invention, an assembly work support system includes (first) memory storage from which training instruction data describing processing of an assembly is readable. A simulation terminal reads the training instruction data and outputs corresponding assembly training messages that include one or more of voice signals and image signals to an operator. The system includes an operator input device adapted to receive interactive input data from the operator. A training controller receives the interactive input data, interprets the interactive input data, and controls the output of the assembly training messages according to the interactive input data. A simulation controller receives the interactive input data, evaluates the interactive input data for predetermined characteristics, and provides feedback to the operator via an output signal that includes one or more of a sound signal and an image signal.
Thus, the inventor contemplates a training assembly work support system that accepts interactive input from the operator in the form of user-interactive control of his or her review of processes to be learned, where the training assembly work support system includes a simulation mode that gives feedback messages to the operator that indicates whether or not the operator""s simulated performance of the simulated tasks is sufficient. At least a teaching portion in which multimedia instructions include distinct multimedia characteristics (such as video clips embedded in work diagrams) is included, as well as simulation exercises with feedback, e.g., positive (beeps) and negative feedback (buzzes) when the worker/trainee performs simulated tasks.
In a further aspect of the present invention, an assembly work support system includes memory storage from which instruction data for processing an assembly is readable, and a converter that reads the instruction data and converts the instruction data into output signals that include one or more of voice signals and image signals. A simulation terminal receives the output signals and outputs corresponding assembly training messages to an operator, a first operator input device receives first interactive input data from the operator, and a simulation controller that receives the first interactive input data and interprets the first interactive input data to provide training feedback to the operator. A work control terminal receives the output signals and outputs corresponding assembly messages to an operator, a second operator input device receives second interactive input data from the operator, and a work control controller receives the second interactive input data and interprets the interactive input data.
In this case, the work control controller may record the second interpreted interactive input data in a database. Further, the work control controller may interpret the second interactive input data to control the output of the assembly messages according to the second interactive input data.
Accordingly, the inventor contemplates a central processor or server that gathers work flow data and evaluates the data, in some cases for the ultimate purpose of modifying work flow and process design. In this case, data may be collected that ultimately become work flow data, for example, for evaluating operator efficiency/performance; for evaluating whether the instructions are well designed (if many operators request review of the same process step); and/or for identifying unnecessary waiting and bottlenecks, i.e., in order to improve assembly line balance.
Other exemplary embodiments and advantages of the present invention may be ascertained by reviewing the present disclosure and the accompanying drawings.